Photographic type composing machine



y 1951 w. s. CURTIS 2,552,880

PHOTOGRAPHIC TYPE COMPOSING MACHINE Original Filed April 7, 1945 5 Sheets-Sheet 1 Illllll l INVENTORS WILLARD s. curms my, Y/X gw ATTORNEYS y 5 w. s. CURTIS 2,552,880

PHOTOGRAPHIC TYPE COMPOSING MACHINE Original Filed April '7, 1945 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 TUHUUUUIIUBUTIDH llllllll LINE RELEASE NORMAL INVENTORS WILLARD S. CURTIS BY I m M JW 'ATTORNEYS May 15, 1951 w. s. CURTIS 2,552,380

PHOTOGRAPHIC TYPE COMPOSING MACHINE Original Filed April '7, 1945 v 5 Sheets-Sheet 3 INVENTORS WILLARD s. CURTIS m/ WQQW y 1951 w. s. CURTIS 2,552,880

PHOTOGRAPHIC TYPE COMPOSING MACHINE Original Filed April 7, 1945 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 INVENTORS WILLARD s. cum-1s BY m MM! :4 1

ATTORNEYS Patented May 15, 1951 PHOTOGRAPHI'C TYPE COMPOSING MACHINE Willard S. Curtis, Brooklyn, N. Y., assignor to Intertype Corporation, Brooklyn, N. Y.

Original application April 7, 1945, Serial No. 587,062. Divided and this application March 23, 1949, Serial No. 82,949

2 Claims. 1

This invention relates to improved apparatus for photographically producing type matter for printing processes for offset and gravure printing, and more particularly to a machine for producing lines of printing type matter photographically by exposing type characters, borne or represented by suitable elements, individually and successively in the order of composition of the elements in a line, and recording the exposures in a spaced relation governed by a dimension of the respective elements which is representative of the setwise width of the particular character to be produced.

An organized machines capable of accomplishing this result is disclosed in the co-pending application of Klingberg et a1., Serial No. 452,248, filed July 24, 1942, which matured into Patent No. 2,391,021 on December 18, 1945, and broadly viewed, the present invention is directed toward improved apparatus for increasing the utility, speed of production and efficiency of operation of a machine of this general nature.

The present invention is a division of the application Serial No. 587,062, filed April '7, 1945, now abandoned, by Herman R. Freund, Willard 3. Curtis, and Fritz Stadelman.

Among the objects of the invention are the following: to provide mechanism capable of greater speed of operation in removing or displacing the elements individually from the composed line thereof and moving them successively to photographing and discharging positions; and to provide spring-operated element pick-up slides on uni-directionally moving chains to eiiect such displacing and movement of the elements.

In the present embodiment, character-bearing elements are employed (see Figure 2) which carry a photographably reproducible character disposed in a plane parallel to a flat or broad side of the element body, the thickness of which latter is equal to or proportional to the setwise width of the particular character borne thereby. Apart from the nature and arrangement of their reproducible characters, these elements are provided with upper and lower pairs of supporting and guiding lugs or ears and with combination distributing teeth, thus to accommodate them to the well-known matrix storage, assembling and distributing facilities such as used in the machine of the beforementioned Patent No. 2,391,021 and commonly found in commercial line-composing and type slug casting machines of the general organization disclosed in U. S. Patent No. 436,532, granted to O. Mergenthaler on September 16, 1890.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a partial front elevation showing portions of the element storage and assembling mechanism and the associated line-composing, line-delivery and line-justifying channels Figure 2 is a perspective view of one of the character-bearing elements useful with the invention;

Figure 3 is a partial front elevation of a portion of the structure illustrated in Figure l, and shows the housing adjacent the left end thereof containing the element displacing chains and the lugs or dogs embodying the present invention;

Figure 4 is a section taken on line l l of Figure 3, but with certain parts removed to illustrate the chains;

Figure 5 is a fragmentary plan view partly in section as viewed generally on the line 55 of Figure 4;

Figure 6 is a side elevation as viewed from the left of the assembled inner and outer plates which form the element feed channel and the right hand wall of the housing shown at the left side of the machine in Figure 3;

Figure 7 is a side elevation of the outer one of the two plates of Figure 6, this plate being shown detached in order to illustrate details of its construction;

Figure 8 is a vertical section taken on the line 8-& through the assembled plates in Figure Figure 9 is a vertical section taken on the line 9-9 through the assembled plates in Figure 6;

Figure 10 is a fragmentary front elevation in full size showing a leading line element in position for displacement upwardly in the feed channel by the pick-up slides on the uni-directional moving chains; and

Figure 11 is a fragmentary perspective view showing details of construction of the element pick-up slides.

As already indicated, the invention is disclosed by way of example as applied to a machine provided with photographic apparatus and equipped with element storage, assembling and distributing mechanisms such as employed in commercial typographical line-composing and slug-casting machines of the general class set forth in U. S. Patent No.436,532. Since the construction and operation of these mechanisms is so well known to those skilled in the art only fragments of some of the storage and assembling parts are shown herein, the distributing mechanism proper being omitted entirely.

Referring to Figure 1, the character-bearing elements are composed as usual in the assembling elevator 6, which is subsequently raised to a horizontal line-delivery channel along which the composed line of elements is shifted to the position shown in Figure .3 and justified, whereupon the elements are individually displaced upwardly from this channel and successively moved to photographing and discharging positions.

Elements suitable for this purpose are illustrated in Figure 2. The photographically reproducible character is carried on a plaque B, such as a piece of film mounted on the body portion of the element M, and disposed in a plane parallel to the broad or flat sides of the element body. The edgewise thickness of the element body, the dimension C, is made equal to or proportional to the setwise width of the particular character on the plaque B and this dimension is used, as will later be seen, to determine and control the actual advance of the sensitized film, or the film holder, after each exposure of a character. The characters are preferably placed recumbent relative to the height of the element so that for the successive photographic exposures in line formation the film (or the holder for it) may be fed downwardly with the aid of gravity.

The elements are provided with the usual upper and lower sets of edgewise projecting ears or lugs D and E respectively, and the combination distributing teeth A. The lugs D and E on all of the elements of a font are alike in thickness so that such lugs may be used to guide the elements, regardless of their variant body thicknesses for different width characters, through a common guide or feed channel to the photographing devices of the machine. The notch K in the rear vertical edge of the elements cooperates with a slide member having a V-shaped end and adapted to engage said notch to align the character of each element at photographing position in the aforesaid feed channel. The location of thi notch bears a definite relation to the location of the different characters on the plaques B of the elements, that is, the apex of the notch lies at the same distance in all cases from the point of intersection of fixed horizontal and vertical base lines which establish the location set wise and vertically of all characters.

After the composed line of elements reaches the position shown in Figure 3, and after the justifying action has taken place, the elements are successively removed for photographing. The

present invention provides mechanism operating in one direction only for displacing the elements individually and successively from the leading end of the composed and justified line of elements and for progressively feeding them to photographing and discharging station along a vertical feed channel wall I29, as shown in Figures 3 and 8.

In the present instance the uni-directional eleplates are secured together as by two screws I8 I a, and are secured to the housing by four screws I83 (Figure 4). As shown in Figures 6 and 7, plate I8I is provided with four clearance holes I89, and plate I82 with four correspondingly located tapped holes I85 to accommodate the securing screws I83. The rigid vertical wall I29 of the element displacing and feed channel, hereinbefore referred to, is constituted by the face of plate I8I which is opposed to plate I82 when the two plates are assembled together and secured to the housing I61 by the screws I83.

Between the assembled plates I8I and I82 is located the aforesaid element displacing and feed channel generally designated I86 in Figures 1, 3, 8 and 10. This channel is formed by the vertical wall I20 of plate I8] and vertical groove I91 cut into the face of plate I82 to a depth slightly more than the edgewise thickness of the lugs on the elements or matrices M. As best seen in Figures 3 and 8, the element feed channel I85 extends upwardly from the horizontal justification channel rails Ilill to a level for discharging the line elements onto the ribbed bar of the second elevator 60. Plate I82 is provided with an elongated opening I88 somewhat longer than the feed channel I85, the lower end of such opening being enlarged at I38 to the over-all width and height of an element, thus to admit the leading element of an assembled line past plate I82 into the bottom end of the feed channel and against wall I29. The upper end of the opening I33 is enlarged at I89 and I99 to clear the upper and lower lugs of the elements as they are pushed laterally out of the top of the feed channel i135 onto the ribbed bar 40 as later explained.

To the same depth as the grooves I31 there is formed in plate I82 symmetrical sets of grooves I9! which register with slots I92 through the plate I 8| when the two plates I81 and I82 are assembled face to face as shown in Figure 8. The slots I92 are formed by the profile of elongated pieces I93 punched or otherwise cut out of plate I8! on the line I94, the pieces I93 being reduced in outline after being cut out and then secured by screws I95 to plate NH. The slots I92 superimposed over the grooves I9I when plates I8I and I82 are assembled form guideways for the element engaging pick-up slides I28 on the opposed chains I29 as best seen in Figures 5 and 10.

Thus, when the chains I29 are driven in the direction of the arrows in Figures 4 and 10, the slides I28 are forced, by their springs I96 through the slots I92 and into the grooves HM, and said slides are caused to retreat out of the grooves I9I by the inclined surfaces I30 (inclined from the depth of grooves I9I to the wall I29 as they approach the element pick-up position, Figures 6, 7, 8 and 10) in order to clear the lower lugs at the opposite edges of the leading line element pressed against the wall I29. By the time the recesses I9? formed in the front ends of an opposed on-coming pair of slides I23 arrive opposite the lower lu'gs of a' leading line element the bottom edges of the respective slides arrive at the level of the shoulders I88 at the bottom of the enlarged opening I88, Figures 7 and 10, the inclines I39 terminating somewhat below these shoulders. The slides are now free to snap inwardly, under the urge of their springs I96, whereupon the opposed lower lugs of the leading line element become engaged in the recess I91 of the corresponding pair of slides for movement upwardly of such element along the feed channel I86. It will be clear from Figures 8 and 10 that the rails I60 of the channel I60 extend through the opening I88 in plate I82 and terminate clear of the wall I20 by the depth of the grooves I8'I A fixed pair of lugs I20 Figures 6, 8 and 10, is provided on the plate I8I to support in the feed channel I86 the leading line element pressed leftward against wall I29 beyond the termination of rails I60 during justification when the chains are idle, and likewise to support each successive leading element until the arrival of a pair of pick-up slides when the chains are in operation. It will also be clear that the slides I28 on the opposed chains are arranged to arrive in pairs opposite the element to be engaged and to effect such engagement by springing over the lower lugs of the element in a direction normal to the fiat or broad side face of the element.

Plate I82 is provided with a recess I98 in which operates the reciprocable register bar I3I hereinbefore alluded to (Figures 5 and 7), this bar servin to accurately locate the elements, successively moved upwardly by slides I28, on the optical axis during the photographic reproducing operation, all as hereinafter explained.

The respective chains I29 pass over upper and lower sprockets and also over idler sprockets midway between, as clearly shown in Figure 4. The upper sprockets I99 are mounted on shoulder screws 200 which enter the tapped holes I in plate IBI, see also Figures 6 and 9. The idler sprockets 202 are mounted on shoulder screws 203 which enter the tapped holes 204 in plate I9 I. The lower sprockets 205 are pinned to short shafts 206 and 20'! which respectively are rotatable in similarly fixed bosses 208, see Figure 3, and in ball bearings 209 in the pieces I93 secured to plate I82, see Figure 6. To shaft 206 is pinned a spur gear 2I0 which meshes with a similar gear 2 on shaft 201.

Shaft 206 is suitably driven through the medium of a Geneva drive of the type shown in Figure 5, and the resultant intermittent motion is transmitted to the two chains through the meshing gears 2I0 and 2i I.

As pointed out earlier in this specification, the element displacing and feeding chains are driven intermittently, through a Geneva type of drive, in order to provide the required dwells for the successive photographic exposures. The power for this drive and also for the apertured rotary photographic shutter 244, see Fig. 4, is taken from the vertical shaft 8| which is suitably driven from the shaft "I8 through meshing gears E9, 80, see Figures 3 and 4.

Referring now to Figures 3, 4 and 5, the shaft 8! carries the driver 2I2 for the Geneva wheel 2I3. As usual for the Geneva type of intermittent drive, the driver 2 I2 is constituted by an eccentric (pinned to shaft 8|) carrying a roller 2 I4 and having a hub 2I5. The wheel 2I3 is constituted by a disk having similar channels 2I6 cut across one face at right angles to one another and intersecting at the axis of the disk, and having arcs 2II formed in its outer rim between the mouths of the channels 2I6, the arcs 2II being adapted to fit snugly against the hub 2I5 of the driver and maintain the wheel intermittently at rest relative to the driver. The wheel 2I3 is turned a quarter turn for each full turn of the driver, the roller 2I4 on the latter entering one of the quarter channels 2I6 in the wheel and tracking on one side wall of such channel to enforce rotation of the wheel. As the roller 2I4 approaches the center of the wheel it turns the latter with increasing speed and then starts retracking against the same side wall of the same quarter channel, meanwhile turning the wheel at a gradually decreasing speed until the roller finally emerges out of the channel. By this time the wheel has been rotated ninety degrees and comes to rest while the driver continues to rotate to the point of its roller entering, then retreating out of the next adjacent quarter channel. The hub 2I5 of the eccentric driver 2I2 is provided with an arcuate cut 2I8 to clear the blades of the Geneva wheel as it is turned on its axis by the roller 2 I4.

The Gevena wheel 2I3 is pinned to the upper end of a vertical shaft 2I9 to which shaft is also pinned a bevel gear 220 for driving the companion gear 22I (pinned to the inner end of shaft 206, Figure 3), and in turn imparting the intermittent drive to the chains I29. The opposed parallel runs of the chains I29 move upwardly as indicated by the arrow in Figure 4 when they are in operation.

It will now be evident that as the chains I29 are driven an opposed pair of pick-up slides I28 are cammed back as their vertical front edges ride up the respective cooperating inclined surfaces I30, see Figures '7 and 10. Upon arrival of the recess I91 in the respective slides opposite the corresponding lower lugs of the element at the head of the justified line of elements, the slides snap over said lugs and immediately elevate the element in the feed channel I86. Due to the timing of the Geneva wheel 2I3 and of the cam 222, the chains stop just as the notch K in the elevated element arrives opposite to the pointed end of the register bar I3I, and at this moment cam 222 swings arm 223 anticlockwise which in turn swings the toothed rocker 223 clockwise. This releases the register bar for sliding leiward as viewed in Figure 5 under the pull of its spring 23I, whereupon the pointed end of the bar enters notch K to positively align the element during its brief period of dwell at the photographing position.

Cam 222 continues to rotate with the constantly turning shaft BI, the chains, however, remaining idle while the hub 2I5 of the Geneva driver rides in the particular are 2 H in the outer rim of the Geneva wheel. By the time roller 2 I4 of the driver enters the next quarter channel 2 I6 in the Geneva wheel, cam 222 will have turned far enough to bring roller 224 on rocker arm 223 onto the low concentric portion of the cam so that the register bar I 3| will have been retracted, this condition being clearly illustrated in Figure 5. Accordingly, as the Geneva drive again starts the chains, the photographed element will be free to be elevated further along the feed channel. Meanwhile, the next element at the head of the line (pressed against wall I20 by the leftward advance of the remaining elements along rails I60 after each displacement of an element) will be elevated, from its resting place on lugs I20 to the photographic position by the next opposed pair of slides I28, such pair of slides having snapped over the lower lugs of said next element at the time the chains stopped for the exposure of the previously raised element. At the end of the instant quarter turn of the Geneva Wheel the chains will stop again and cam 222 will release the register slide for aligning said next element for photographic exposure.

The construction and sliding action of the element pick-up slides I28 will be clear from Figures l0 and 11. Thus, at evenly spaced intervals the chains I29 are provided with special links 129 having upper and lower lugs which are channeled on their opposed inner faces to accommodate the slide members I28. Springs I95 fastened to a lug on the slide members and to a pin I96 in the'special links I29 act to urge the slides into the element feed channel N36. The inclined surfaces [30, Figures 6 and 10, act to cam an opposed pair of slides backwardly against springs I96 as such slides approach the lower lugs of the leading line element resting on lugs 120* in the feed channel.

It will be apparent that the speed of rotation of shaft 8| determines the rapidity with which the successive steps of displacing, registering and photographing takes place, the movement of an element by the chains from the level of rails use to the optical axis being accomplished during 90 degrees of rotation of shaft 8| and the registering action, according to the instant arrangement, being completed within the following 45 degrees of rotation, thus leaving an ample period "of 225 degrees for the photographing operation and retraction of the register bar. Since the registering action could obviously take place as soon as the chains stop (after the 90 degree turn of the Geneva wheel by the corresponding rotation of shaft 8|) a double arm Geneva driver having two rollers, spaced 180 degrees apart, may be employed, if desired. In such case, two elementdisplacing and photographing actions may be attained for each full turn of shaft 3-] without increasing the actual speed of movement of the chains or the elements.

Upon arrival of each element att'he top of the feed channel, it is discharged laterally to the right as viewed in Figure 3 onto a suitable elevator bar 40. It is unnecessary to go into the details of this operation, but it is accomplished by means of a reciprocating pusher 238, suitably timed with the intermittent movement of the chains.

The various other inventions herein disclosed but not claimed are being covered in .a copending application filed on even date herewith, and which application is a division of the application Serial No. 587,062, file'dApril 7, 1945.

Since many embodiments might be made of the present inventionand since many changes might be made in the embodiment disclosed herein, it is to be understood that the foregoing description is to be interpreted as illustrative only and not in a limiting sense.

I claim:

1. In apparatus for photographically producing on a sensitized surface a line of type matter by photographing character-bearing elements composed into a line, in combination, a supporting channel for supporting a composed line of elements, a feed channel communicating with said supporting channel and extending generally transversely thereof whereby the leading element of a line of elements in said supporting channel extends into said feed channel, element rem-oving and feeding means comprising an endless conveyor, means to drive said conveyor intermittently in one direction along said feed channel, element-engaging pawls mounted on said conveyor at uniform intervals and having projections extending into said feed channel for interlocking engagement with parts of said elements and being yieldably urged into element-engaging position, a fixed cam surface in said i'eed channel formed and located to engage said pawls as they approach the leading line element and press them at least partially out of said feed channel to a position for clearing the part of the leading element to be engaged and to release said pawls into element-engaging position when said pawls are opposite the part of the leading element to be engaged.

2. Apparatus as in claim 1 in which said feed channel includes guideways for receiving and laterally guiding the projections of said pawls to prevent their moving laterally out of engagement with said elements.

WILLARD S. CURTIS.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 2,220,474 Bryce Nov. 5, 1940 12,231,924 Koller Feb. 18, 1941 2,391,021 Klingberg et al. 'Dec. 18, 1945 

